Data Methodology0% read
Methodology

Data Methodology

This page documents exactly how Coffee Near You collects, verifies, and publishes location data. Transparency is a prerequisite for trust.

The figures below describe the Starbucks source snapshot. They are separate from the published location count across all coffee chains on the home page. The source snapshot can include records outside the published locator inventory.

Starbucks records
12,312
Countries
2
States / provinces
62
Cities
4,189
1

Source data

Primary source: OpenStreetMap, extracted via Overpass API queries against brand:wikidata=Q37158 (Starbucks). Secondary signals: public business registries, transit proximity data, and Wikipedia geo-entities for landmark enrichment.

2

Record schema

Store records contain geographic identity (coordinates, address, city, state and country) and a source identifier. Weekly hours, phone numbers and service tags such as drive-through, Wi-Fi or outdoor seating are optional. Missing fields mean unknown, not confirmed unavailable; a record does not establish that a location is open today.

3

Validation pipeline

  • Coordinate bounds check: rejects any record outside its declared country's bounding box.
  • Slug uniqueness: URL-safe slugs are generated per (country, state, city) tuple; collisions are resolved by appending the last four digits of the OSM ID.
  • Hours normalization: 24-hour format, explicit closed day handling, weekend split.
  • Content validation: generated prose is checked against a per-store proper-noun allow-list (derived from address tokens, city, state, country, and nearby landmarks) to prevent hallucinated place names.
  • Near-duplicate detection: character-level 5-gram Jaccard similarity is computed across all 12,000+ generated descriptions; threshold >0.6 flags a record for re-generation.
4

Refresh cadence

The directory baseline snapshot was approved on 2026-07-23. This is a publication date, not a verification date for every store. Updates are published after review; there is no guaranteed automatic refresh interval. Individual records may show a more recent source-check date when available. To report a correction, use the email details on our contact page.

4a. Corrections policy

If you spot an incorrect address, hour, feature flag, or landmark association, email the correction address on our contact page. Include the store URL, the field to correct and a source link or recent visit date. Reports need verification before publication; our response and correction targets are listed on the contact page.

5

Known limitations

  • Hours can drift between OSM refreshes and Starbucks's own updates; for holiday and unusual hours, we recommend confirming via the official Starbucks store locator.
  • Seasonal store closures, remodels, and pop-up locations may lag behind real-world status.
  • Phone numbers are optional in OSM data; absent values are rendered as "—" rather than fabricated.
6

Attribution

Map and location data © OpenStreetMap contributors, used under the Open Database License. Starbucks name and logos are trademarks of Starbucks Corporation, used here nominatively to identify the brand; Coffee Near You is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Starbucks Corporation.

Found an error in the data?
Email the store URL, the correction and a supporting source.
Report a correction →

Methodology updated: 2026-09-11 · Baseline snapshot approved: 2026-07-23